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Monday, 17 December 2012

Are you a start-up currently contemplating on spending that cash on a patent application? Have you recently been advised to file a patent application? Well, I hope you have had a deep thought on how that patent application would fit into the uncertain nature of your venture as well as the sector you operate in. The piece below titled, 'When Should a Start-Up Seek Patent Protection?' by Neil Wilkof, originally published on the IP Finance and reproduced here, seeks case studies on the connection between the dynamic nature of start-ups and timing of their patent applications. Mr Wilkof writes:

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Amoo Venture Capital Advisory was invited to speak at the International Scientific Conference at Russia's Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. The theme was “Problems and Prospects of Scientific and Technological Cooperation of Students, Postgraduates and Young Scientists of the Asia-Pacific countries”. Nzube Ufodike delivered our presentation which was a posit on the UK as Europe's Innovation Hub.

The seminar went down well with several follow-up questions from the conference's delegates. The presentation was subsequently distributed to more than 20 universities and institutions in Russia, Hong Kong, China, India and South Korea. You can view the slides here.

Thursday, 20 September 2012

London 2012 took this nation by storm. The latest instalment of the Olympiad was Made in Britain and was a much bigger production than its first iteration, staged in Sparta in 776 BC but its essential nature remains the same. We are compelled by sport precisely because of its ancient and timeless elements. We are awed by the commitment of athletes who will measure out four years of training in miliseconds and milimeters.

Monday, 17 September 2012

In my last post, I considered why western investors and
start-ups should place China
at the forefront in their overseas expansion plan; now, let’s look at what it
is like to set up there. There are several characteristics of the start-up
scene in China
that differentiate it from any other region in the world. These are summarised
as follows:

1. There is a need for the older generation
within managementKevin
Dai founded Comsenz in 2002 as a software company tasked with providing
solutions to the inefficiencies introduced when blogging and community sites
integrate several complex features within themselves. In speaking about his early
days in the company, Kevin spoke of the importance of hiring older more
experienced senior managers in order to sustain expansion of the company. This
is because China
is a traditional hierarchical society, and young people are expected to defer
to the older generation and not to be their bosses – even in start-ups!

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

The Olympic Games is not yet over. The Olympic stadium - the main venue located in the Olympic park in a once barren area of Stratford - continues to draw
cheering crowds. This stadium is indeed, the place to be to witness the brilliance of elite athletes write their
names in the history books. There is an analogy to be drawn between the evolution of Stratford, and the emergence of China: the latter was once a dormant under-productive nation but now
an economic superpower. The paean to the Eastern giant has been sung
countless times before; but is this worth repeating? Quite simply, yes.

Monday, 20 August 2012

As
the host for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, Brazil is
expected to attract the kind of trade and foreign direct
investments that have become associated with these two global sporting events. However,
this doesn't just happen automatically. To realise any returns on its investments, there would be further expenditure and effort on
the part of the Brazilian government to convince investors. Such efforts have already started with Rio Negocios - the international promotion agency for the city of Rio de Janeiro. This agency hosted conferences at Somerset House, also known as Casa Brazil, where British and Brazilian business leaders converged for investment discussions.

Monday, 6 August 2012

A few months ago a colleague of mine realized that his client relationship was deteriorating. Response times dropped and the work being produced slipped further and further below acceptable standards. Our firm was keen to repair the damage and while we brainstormed possible solutions it hit me that our perception of the quality of the relationship was directly correlated to the quality of their output. Imagine the two variables are plotted along two axes.

Monday, 30 July 2012

By: Kingsley Egbuonu, IP AnalystThis is a piece by Neil Wilkof titled, "Mega-Patent Portfolio Sales: Chimera or Here to Stay?" which was first published on the IP finance blog on Friday, 27 July 2012. In this piece, Neil asks whether the recent sale of
mega-patent portfolios is the most graphic example of the potential value
to be extracted from a properly developed patent portfolio, or the
result of a number of idiosyncratic circumstances that have created a
distorted market for patents, bordering on being a full-fledged patent
bubble. This is what he had to say:

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Just imagine for a second that you are that buzzing entrepreneur looking for capital to plough into your latest project; traditional lending institution’s doors are closed, but you then hear about ‘Venture Capital’ (VC) and you wonder: “what is VC and how does it work?”

This article serves as an overview of the world of VC, from its definition, to how best to approach VCs.

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Decided last month by Mr
Justice Hamblen in the Commercial Division of the Queens Bench, England and
Wales, Brown & others v Innovatorone Plc & others[2012] EWHC 1321
(Comm) is a complex but instructive case on the question of who gets to
pay when an innovation-driven project fails.

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

'There is a big gap between the people that are looking for venture
capital and the people that have venture capital.' - Joe Collins

‘Many of the already functioning businesses in Africa need to be taken
to the next level in order to be attractive to venture capital’ - Jade
Smith

Very rarely does a group of
seasoned investors and entrepreneurs, all burning with the same passion for Africa share a stage to convey their unique and
insightful experiences of Venture Capital investment into the continent.

Friday, 6 July 2012

United Kingdom, July 5th 2012 – The
Amoo Booster Series (ABS) has made its mark in the London scene as a popular
tech meetup event since being launched in January 2012 by Amoo Venture Capital
Advisory,

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Last week's event was a blast! The panel engaged, and dare I say competed, for the attention of our audience. Lots of data, insight and helpful tips were given by our experienced panel on programmes and competitions for startups.

Monday, 12 March 2012

The beaches, the sun, the islands, the mousaka, the souvlaki, the joy! Debt, austerity, tax evasion, political instability, protests, misery… however, if you want to look beyond the headlines, please indulge me as I give you a straight-to-the point qualitative snapshot of the new hype in Greece.

Monday, 20 February 2012

Brazil
is the largest country in Latin America and the world's fifth largest country
in terms of population as well as size. Brazil recently moved one place above
UK to become the world's sixth largest economy with a GDP of 2.52T USD as
reported by CEBR. The Brazilian economy experienced growth in 2010 and 2011 as
the rest of the world was being affected by the global financial meltdown and
the Euro debt crisis; it grew by 7% and 3.5% in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The
CEBR predicts that by the end of this decade, the new world in GDP will
comprise of China, USA, India, Japan, Brazil and Russia (CEBR, 2011).

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Many techies have no idea of "The Forum's" existence, however, this
gentle giant is worth putting on one's calendar for a variety of reasons
- mainly because it attracts a plethora of global leaders,
decision-makers, visionaries and captains in industry. We were fortunate
to receive an invitation to this year's annual meeting in the otherwise
sleepy Swiss village of Davos.

Monday, 23 January 2012

Having a website is akin to setting up a market stall - it is just the beginning of the trading process. One still has to stock one's stall, make sure what is being sold is visible (and obvious) to passerbys, promote the stall, and then sell! The internet parallel is putting up enough information and calls to action on one's website, optimising one's website to be 'visible' to search engines (SEO), making it user-friendly to visitors, and following up on your visitors' response to your calls to action.